“I don’t understand why they killed this gentleman,” Azman said from a hilltop Jewish cemetery in Barakhty, a lovely town about 30 miles south of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. He then read funeral prayers in front of breathtaking views of the countryside and assisted a few mourners in lowering the casket and filling the grave with soil.
He was a calm man who routinely visited the synagogue, Rabbi Moshe Azman told reporters last week as he stood beside Zoreslav Zamojskij’s coffin.
On April 15, the first day of Passover, when Jews typically commemorate their ancestors’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt, it was a somber event for Azman.
He was scarcely able to suppress his rage at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements that his soldiers were rescuing Ukrainians who had been “subjected to bullying and genocide” and that the invasion had been initiated to “denazify” the country and its leadership.
“I stated several times. Denazification is unnecessary in Ukraine,” he stated. “Because we live in a free nation and practice a free faith.”
Azman, a native Russian speaker from the Russian city of St. Petersburg, adding that the invasion reminded him of stories he heard in school about Nazi Germany’s persecution of the European Jewish population.
“Now I see it being done by the Russians. “I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” he stated.
Zamojskij, who Azman stated had no remaining relatives, was 44 years old when he was slain in Bucha, a tiny village on the outskirts of Kyiv that was besieged by Russian forces for five weeks until being freed earlier this month by Ukrainian army.
He wrote a series of posts on Facebook prior to his death, detailing the sounds of fierce combat surrounding his home while he sheltered underground. “It’s quiet on the street,” he said in his most recent post on March 4. Only sometimes isolated blasts in the distant. Tanks and other military hardware have long since departed in an unknown direction. Only God knows what will happen at night.”
Following the Russian departure, shocking images have surfaced from the town’s streets and residences. Several images depicted civilians laying on bloodstained sidewalks, some with their wrists bound behind their backs. Ukraine’s government think that hundreds of people were murdered in Bucha, and they have accused Moscow of war crimes.
According to Jewish burial authorities, Zamojskij was shot numerous times and his body displayed evidence of torture. NBC News has been unable to verify this allegation independently.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in the town and accused Ukraine of orchestrating the claimed murders in order to discredit its forces, an accusation that infuriated Azman.
“The Russians claim that is a forgery, but what is a forgery?” Azman added that Zamojskij was “assassinated when Russian personnel were there.”
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